Harnessing the power of using Emotional Intelligence in your communication as a Leader creates incredible impact and is a vital skill to be a great Leader. In this episode I talk about 3 ways to use Emotional Intelligence to communicate with impact.
In this episode, I talk all about:
- What impactful communication means
- How to use Emotional Intelligence to communicate with more impact
- Why self control is important in communication
- The role empathy plays in Emotional Intelligence and communication
- How to invest and build relationships to truly engage in meaningful communication
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Transcript
[00:01:00] [00:00:00]Hello and welcome to the second episode of the Lead Like YOU! Podcast. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how we can use emotional intelligence to communicate with impact. All right. Let’s get started.
When we talk about impactful communication, what does it actually mean? Goleman defines impactful communication as an effective give and take. Two people who are able to contribute to the conversation. It’s the ability to clearly state what we want, to communicate our needs and our motivations and our opinions.
But also the ability to listen properly to what the other person has to say and their point of view. [00:02:00] It’s about using empathy to understand their point, to understand where they’re coming from. And it’s about coming to a compromise where both parties feel accepted and part of the discussion and the resolution.
To communicate effectively, we have to be receptive for good and bad news. We have to stay objective and be open to take information in.
So how can we use emotional intelligence to communicate with more impact?
Let’s talk about the definition of emotional intelligence. And emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize our own emotions and the emotions of others. And then furthermore, to manage these emotions so that they don’t have an impact on our behaviors. And be able to manage relationships effectively and motivate ourselves and others.
So how can this help us in communicating effectively?
One big competency of emotional intelligence is self control. And this [00:03:00] is really important because it let’s us manage and control our emotions. If we lack this competency, then we might not be able to enter any conversations in a neutral state. We might already be in a bad mood. We might already be frustrated or very stressed.
And by going in any situation with these negative emotions, it will hinder our capacity to truly listen and to truly stay open and receptive to the other person’s opinion and point of view.
You want to enter a conversation in a neutral state, and that will allow you to have a good, strong posture as well, to be confident and relaxed and to show the other person that you’re truly there and present and ready to listen to them. That’s so important about communication.
Furthermore, emotional intelligence or self control allows you to not get flustered in the moment.
Let’s say you’re in a communication. You hear something that you didn’t expect. If you lack self control, [00:04:00] then that might actually really kick you out of balance. And you might react in a way that is not as professional or might ruin the relationship.
If you have self control, you can stay calm and react in a very reflective matter. You can look at the information that you just received and then start to rationally think about the best response. You can manage and purposefully change the way you respond to make sure that the conversation doesn’t get out of hand or conflict arises.
Another way that self control can help you, is to help you level your nerves. Because if we’re nervous, when we go into a conversation or a presentation or a big speech, we might end up talking really, really fast or mumbling our way through. But if we can manage our emotions, if we can manage ourselves, if you can take a deep breath and be relaxed, then we are able to communicate really clearly. And we’re not gonna have any kind of risk of not bringing our message across properly.
Another really important [00:05:00] competency of emotional intelligence is empathy. With empathy you can actually listen and be curious to hear what the other person has to say and refrain from judgment. And that is really important because if we listen and we judge the person and what they say at the same time, we’re not objectively open to really listening to what they have to say.
So we have to use our empathy to keep a curious mind and stop ourselves from judging the other person too quickly.
Empathy allows us to truly tune in and really start to listen to what the other person has to say. Where are they coming from? What’s their motivators and the drivers? What is their emotional state? Starting to really understand who they are and what they want to achieve.
You can adapt your language and your body language to the person that you’re talking to. And that’s really key and important because it again, lets you tune in to the person and build a really [00:06:00] rapid connection straightaway. If you’re managing a bigger team or if you’re entering a big meeting room empathy, let’s you read the room within a few seconds.
So you really know really quickly how to change your approach . Do you need to lift the mood, use a little bit of humour? How do you bring the people along the journey with you and inspire them?
That way you can also make sure that you truly address the needs of your audience to really understand what they need and what motivates them. And you also know how much to say and when maybe to not speak at all.
The third component and competency of emotional intelligence I want to talk about is the social skills. And that’s your relationship building skills. How do you invest and build these relationships to truly engage in meaningful communication?
How can you inspire the person and how can you make them feel truly special? Whoever you speak to should leave the conversation feeling [00:07:00] like they were the most important person in the world to you right now in that moment. To make sure that you were fully present and fully understood their needs and their motivation and where they were coming from. Investing in the relationship. Remember it’s a give and take
And that will allow you to inspire and to truly share your vision with that group or that person.
Emotional intelligence allows you to say what you want to say, to speak clearly, and to make sure that your voice is heard as well. It’s so important that you build your confidence to speak up and voice your opinion and voice your ideas.
And emotional intelligence allows you to not be too pushy. To be assertive, but not aggressive. By tuning in to the other person, using your empathy, by managing your own emotions, and by building relationships, you are able to bring your point across, convince other people of your idea and stay confident while building trust and strong relationships and inspire others for your [00:08:00] ideas.
